MG ZS180 - I've bought another cheap track car...
Discussion
Watching with interest... Currently plodding around track days in a stock Mx5 NC. Got a real hankering to chop it in though for an old french hot-hatch, now I've seen this I'm being pulled in another direction! I can't seem to find much in the way of a decent offering of lowering-springs though. Will you go down the coilover route? These seem to be great value for money regardless, plus a nice V6 soundtrack.
Edit: Woops missed you saying about the coilovers in the first post! The lack of a "standard" cage is quite annoying as well but hopefully you get something sorted.
Edit: Woops missed you saying about the coilovers in the first post! The lack of a "standard" cage is quite annoying as well but hopefully you get something sorted.
Edited by _Yeti on Thursday 2nd December 16:46
Yep - I've been speaking to the very helpful Peter at Vulcan Racing who has specced me a set of Gaz coilovers with the same spring weights used on his competition car.
Off-the-shelf cages are pretty hard to find - although bear in mind the bodyshell is pretty much a 90s Civic (MB, I think?) which gives you a bit of choice if you look carefully. I suspect I'll be going down the fabrication route but it all depends on budget. Either way a cage will be going in - there's been a few 'rollers' on trackdays recently which has highlighted the importance of decent safety kit!
Off-the-shelf cages are pretty hard to find - although bear in mind the bodyshell is pretty much a 90s Civic (MB, I think?) which gives you a bit of choice if you look carefully. I suspect I'll be going down the fabrication route but it all depends on budget. Either way a cage will be going in - there's been a few 'rollers' on trackdays recently which has highlighted the importance of decent safety kit!
I told you this would be a slow burner 
Ok, a handful of updates. Shortly after Christmas I had compiled enough bits to get the car booked into my local indy. Normally I’d like to do most of this myself, but I’m well aware of my lack of free time at the moment so sometimes it’s necessary to pay people to get things moving!
I collected the car in early Jan with the following carried out:
Fitting of Gaz Gold coilovers
New stock callipers all round – one of the rears was leaking and the fronts were both binding slightly, and replacements are cheap
EBC braided lines, and a couple of new copper lines after the old fittings didn’t play ball
DOT5 fluid
Engine & gearbox oil
Alignment
I’d love to say I jumped in and headed straight to the nearest track, but in actual fact I parked it for three months and forgot about it :lol:
I finally pulled my finger out a couple of weeks back and booked a cheap weekday track day at Thruxton – a new track for me, despite being fairly local. I’ve heard lots about Thruxton being a very fast circuit, and turning up on a damp morning to a new track which allows overtaking on either side, in a fairly underpowered car, I was a touch nervous to say the least. It took a few laps just to learn where I was going – there isn’t a single true ‘straight’ in the circuit – but once things dried out a bit and I remembered which was a fast corner and which was a really-fast corner I started getting into a bit of a rhythm.
The new brakes held up really well (there’s a couple of heavy braking zones each lap) and the coilovers have made a massive difference to how it handles. That V6 up front means it’ll never change direction like a Clio, but you can really load it up in the corners and it’s really easy and intuitive to adjust the line of the car with throttle inputs. I’m still getting used to driving FWD on track but the MG is really confidence-inspiring and very enjoyable.
Note rear wheel off the ground!
And here’s a quick vid of one of the afternoon sessions. Thruxton’s a touch boring to watch but very fun to drive – the speeds are so high that a slight mistake on braking or turn-in can see you missing an apex by about 15 feet. If you listen carefully you can hear me berating myself once or twice for doing just that
Of course, no cheap track car post is complete without the emergence of something else that needs attention. When heading in from my last run of the day I noticed the front undertray was hanging off. No worries, thought I, I’ll jump underneath and cable-tie it back on for now (because racecar, etc). Unfortunately it wasn’t quite that straightforward
So, back on the trailer we go! It’s now back with the fabricator who is going to poke away at the rust and then (hopefully!) get some actual metal back in there. He’s had a few of these so is familiar with where and how they rust, so I’m confident it’s in good hands. Assuming the car is salvageable, we’ll also get the passenger seat in and a cage built. And given it’s now off the road and unlikely to return, it might get some new decat exhaust bits while it’s in there…
Ok, a handful of updates. Shortly after Christmas I had compiled enough bits to get the car booked into my local indy. Normally I’d like to do most of this myself, but I’m well aware of my lack of free time at the moment so sometimes it’s necessary to pay people to get things moving!
I collected the car in early Jan with the following carried out:
Fitting of Gaz Gold coilovers
New stock callipers all round – one of the rears was leaking and the fronts were both binding slightly, and replacements are cheap
EBC braided lines, and a couple of new copper lines after the old fittings didn’t play ball
DOT5 fluid
Engine & gearbox oil
Alignment
I’d love to say I jumped in and headed straight to the nearest track, but in actual fact I parked it for three months and forgot about it :lol:
I finally pulled my finger out a couple of weeks back and booked a cheap weekday track day at Thruxton – a new track for me, despite being fairly local. I’ve heard lots about Thruxton being a very fast circuit, and turning up on a damp morning to a new track which allows overtaking on either side, in a fairly underpowered car, I was a touch nervous to say the least. It took a few laps just to learn where I was going – there isn’t a single true ‘straight’ in the circuit – but once things dried out a bit and I remembered which was a fast corner and which was a really-fast corner I started getting into a bit of a rhythm.
The new brakes held up really well (there’s a couple of heavy braking zones each lap) and the coilovers have made a massive difference to how it handles. That V6 up front means it’ll never change direction like a Clio, but you can really load it up in the corners and it’s really easy and intuitive to adjust the line of the car with throttle inputs. I’m still getting used to driving FWD on track but the MG is really confidence-inspiring and very enjoyable.
Note rear wheel off the ground!
And here’s a quick vid of one of the afternoon sessions. Thruxton’s a touch boring to watch but very fun to drive – the speeds are so high that a slight mistake on braking or turn-in can see you missing an apex by about 15 feet. If you listen carefully you can hear me berating myself once or twice for doing just that
Of course, no cheap track car post is complete without the emergence of something else that needs attention. When heading in from my last run of the day I noticed the front undertray was hanging off. No worries, thought I, I’ll jump underneath and cable-tie it back on for now (because racecar, etc). Unfortunately it wasn’t quite that straightforward
So, back on the trailer we go! It’s now back with the fabricator who is going to poke away at the rust and then (hopefully!) get some actual metal back in there. He’s had a few of these so is familiar with where and how they rust, so I’m confident it’s in good hands. Assuming the car is salvageable, we’ll also get the passenger seat in and a cage built. And given it’s now off the road and unlikely to return, it might get some new decat exhaust bits while it’s in there…
Might be of interest ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RmKgpLLBk8 - MGCC Cockshoot Cup Race One LIVE - Cadwell Park-Start delayed.
Hahaha, yes - it's fair to say a certain amount of 'life' has happened over the last couple of years, so the MG really hasn't had much of a look-in. I did eventually sort out a cage via a local fabricator, and made a couple of other tweaks (most notably a set of Skunk 2 adjustable front camber arms, which worked wonders). Looking back through my photos it appears I did a whopping three trackdays in the entirety of 2023. Fine when it's just sat in the garage on a trickle charger, but now I've moved and lost my garage space I'm a bit more conscious of it all sitting outside doing nothing.
Still, it got a good send-off - I'd booked a trackday at Goodwood for my Dad's 70th, the plan being my brother, dad and I would head down and razz around in the MG all day.
The last trackday (one of Frank's excellent charity days at Blyton) had done for the brakes, so I set about getting a set of EBC Bluestuffs fitted and giving it a general checkover.
I also spent far too long buggering about with the trailer, which is also objecting to being kept outside in the form of a bad earth somewhere in the lighting circuit. A lack of time meant I ended up fitting an Amazon special set of externally-powered lights instead, before loading up...
Fortunately, Goodwood was about as good a trackday as I've ever had. After a wet morning the track dried out and stayed dry the rest of the day. The three of us managed over a dozen sessions through the day and had an absolute blast, culminating in a lovely final session playing with a GR Yaris and a gen2 Elise for a few laps. The main thing is my old man had a fantastic day - he remembers watching Stirling Moss race here as a kid, so getting to drive the track in anger was something of a dream come true for him. A fitting swan song, if there ever was one
So, yeah, it's for sale now. I'll be back on track in something, at some point, but until then I'll be focusing my car efforts on keeping the M5 up to scratch as the wonderfully apic fast road car it is. Which reminds me, I should update that thread as well....
Still, it got a good send-off - I'd booked a trackday at Goodwood for my Dad's 70th, the plan being my brother, dad and I would head down and razz around in the MG all day.
The last trackday (one of Frank's excellent charity days at Blyton) had done for the brakes, so I set about getting a set of EBC Bluestuffs fitted and giving it a general checkover.
I also spent far too long buggering about with the trailer, which is also objecting to being kept outside in the form of a bad earth somewhere in the lighting circuit. A lack of time meant I ended up fitting an Amazon special set of externally-powered lights instead, before loading up...
Fortunately, Goodwood was about as good a trackday as I've ever had. After a wet morning the track dried out and stayed dry the rest of the day. The three of us managed over a dozen sessions through the day and had an absolute blast, culminating in a lovely final session playing with a GR Yaris and a gen2 Elise for a few laps. The main thing is my old man had a fantastic day - he remembers watching Stirling Moss race here as a kid, so getting to drive the track in anger was something of a dream come true for him. A fitting swan song, if there ever was one
So, yeah, it's for sale now. I'll be back on track in something, at some point, but until then I'll be focusing my car efforts on keeping the M5 up to scratch as the wonderfully apic fast road car it is. Which reminds me, I should update that thread as well....
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